Best free editing software

alchal · 26 Aug 2020 at 21:58

So on the lookout for some free photo editing software ,Nikon NEF raw files are the ones I require editing, nothing needed other than a few touch ups and shadow highlight jiggery ala windows10 editor.

Also having used d750 raw files on the windows 10 editor with great success I find it alters the d850 files and makes them look like absolute garbage for some reason.

Or will push the boat out for a paid version as long as it not lightroom etc costs.

Donnie Fisher · 26 Aug 2020 at 22:20

If you don't find anything free, then for cheap, Affinity photo can regularly be had for a decent discount price in sales. Its normally ~£50, but I've seen I've seen it down at around £30 before. One off payment, and loads of upgrades as time goes on.

I ditched Adobe subscription for it about 18 months ago, and I've not missed it.

Minstadave · 26 Aug 2020 at 22:22

Darktable is pretty good.

Raymond Lin · 26 Aug 2020 at 23:03

You can get a year's sub of LR for £25 at the moment on Amazon.

alchal · 27 Aug 2020 at 10:59

Thanks for the tips people.
Have trialled the topaz labs de noise and was amazed by it so possibly buy that one,not sure if other programs do noise reduction as good?

craptakular · 27 Aug 2020 at 11:13

I loved Capture one but not free, and still needed photoshop.

went photoshop and Lightroom sub and bought the Adp panel for photoshop, it’s amazing!

darktable is good but liked a bit complicated.

gimp is free but a bit clunky compared to photoshop.

alchal · 27 Aug 2020 at 11:56

Tried gimp,lots and lots of features but found it hard to get into.

craptakular · 27 Aug 2020 at 11:59

alchal said:
Tried gimp,lots and lots of features but found it hard to get into.

I did the same, it works but it’s a lot harder to get in to

Barks · 27 Aug 2020 at 20:57

Raymond Lin said:
You can get a year's sub of LR for £25 at the moment on Amazon.

A mistake? Can’t see it anywhere and would save me a fortune.

Raymond Lin · 27 Aug 2020 at 21:39

Barks said:
A mistake? Can’t see it anywhere and would save me a fortune.

it turns out to be the Lightroom cloud version and not CC.

Minusorange · 28 Aug 2020 at 10:57

alchal said:
Thanks for the tips people.
Have trialled the topaz labs de noise and was amazed by it so possibly buy that one,not sure if other programs do noise reduction as good?

DXO Photolab this is a full RAW editor

Also worth mentioning Topaz de noise isn't a full RAW editor it just gets rid of noise but it does it the best of the all programs supposedly (If I get On1 over DXO I'll probably get denoise to compliment it as On1 denoise isn't as good as the other 2)

I'm currently trialling a few different editors after picking up Luminar 3 for free around Easter, top of my shortlist are On1 Photo Raw (on offer for £75 at the moment including a free update to next version) and DXO (on offer for 30% off but going to wait for Black Friday 50% off)

Picked up Affinity when it was half price a few months back as well (should be 50% around black friday) well worth the £25 as a replacement for Photoshop

For free though you can't go wrong with Darktable, there's also Raw Therapee and Lightzone but they're not as popular

alchal · 28 Aug 2020 at 13:50

Will have a look at them thanks

Barks · 28 Aug 2020 at 16:02

Raymond Lin said:
it turns out to be the Lightroom cloud version and not CC.

That's a real shame. I love LrC and will be gutted if they do a VSCO and move to the cloud based solution.

Raymond Lin · 28 Aug 2020 at 16:16

Barks said:
That's a real shame. I love LrC and will be gutted if they do a VSCO and move to the cloud based solution.

They have 2 versions, the Classic is the one we are used to.

Barks · 28 Aug 2020 at 16:26

Raymond Lin said:
They have 2 versions, the Classic is the one we are used to.

Indeed. I subscribe to the Photography package and only use Adobe Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop, not Adobe Lightroom.

alchal · 5 Sep 2020 at 18:04

Downloaded and trying dark table.

It's great!

philstanbridge · 12 Sep 2020 at 20:02

Affinity and Lightroom 6.14 here. Affinity is very powerful.

Gredawarha · 20 Sep 2020 at 17:18

alchal said:
So on the lookout for some free photo editing software ,Nikon NEF raw files are the ones I require editing, nothing needed other than a few touch ups and shadow highlight jiggery ala windows10 editor.

Also having used d750 raw files on the windows 10 editor with great success I find it alters the d850 files and makes them look like absolute garbage for some reason.

Or will push the boat out for a paid version as long as it not lightroom etc costs.

I recently decided to ditch Lightroom and Photoshop as I was fed up with the subscription model. I shoot with Fuji so went with Capture One Express which is free but this is Fuji and Sony only. And Affinity Photo to replace Photoshop.

Couple of options you might want to look at is Adobe Bridge which requires an Adobe account but no subscription needed.

Digikam is also a good option.

alchal · 20 Sep 2020 at 17:20

Will have a look at them thanks.

Gredawarha · 21 Sep 2020 at 11:32

Gredawarha said:
I recently decided to ditch Lightroom and Photoshop as I was fed up with the subscription model. I shoot with Fuji so went with Capture One Express which is free but this is Fuji and Sony only. And Affinity Photo to replace Photoshop.

Couple of options you might want to look at is Adobe Bridge which requires an Adobe account but no subscription needed.

Digikam is also a good option.

Might be worth mentioning that while Capture One is quite expensive, as a Capture One Express user (the free version) I get regular emails from them offering 60% off the paid version which might make the expense more palatable.